Gluten & Egg Free cornbread

2 Tbs baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups ground corn flour
1 cup potato flour
1/2 cup almond meal plus 1tbsp
1/2 cup rice flour
2 tsp sea salt
2 cups buttermilk
2 Tbs rice wine vinegar
4 Tbs maple syrup
2/3 cup organic unsweetened plain apple sauce
1/2 cup olive oil
1tbsp italian spices
2 tsp mince garlic
1/2 cup onions

Mix the dry ingredients except spices. Mix the wet ingredients. Then mix together should come out smelling like bread dough and feeling like bread dough. Line a cake pan 13x9 cake pan with parchment paper. Kneed in the spices, garlic, & onions. Spread in pan, Bake 375 degrees for 30 mins

Ginger Tamari Kale chips

Lacinto Kale
Salt
Ginger Powder
Gluten Free Tamari
Organic Coconut Oil

Strip kale from central stem, soak in cool water, dry in salad spinner. coat in ginger powder, salt, coconut oil and tamari. Cook at 275 for 15 to 20 minutes.

Vegan, Egg Free Ice Cream

1 can coconut milk
3 bananas extra ripe
1/8 cup maple syrup
1/2 an avocado
1tsp vanilla

Food process all ingredients until it becomes a thick soup. Pour into
ice maker 10 to 12 min. (I have a cuisinart). I also added gluten free Annie's gingersnap bunnies. Super tasty. At least my 2 yr old says so.

Backyard update...

What my garden looks like as of this post.

A lot has changed in the backyard from it's mostly dirt and ligustrum status to the idea of a garden of low maintenance natives to raised beds to now.

First year in the house, figuring out the best paths in the backyard.

Fall 2009 was a great time in my garden. Spring while I was very pregnant everything went to flower and I had some really pretty crimson clover. Some native plants didn't make it through the summer, others flourished, and some I finally figured out were actually short-lived perennials. A lot managed to live through 2011 and I moved the raised beds a couple of times. Quite a few things died since I had a baby whose care took most of my time. I killed the roses that were passed on to me and then one I bought. I also killed the blackberries plants I tried to plant as well as the Fig tree. I also changed a lot that year or maybe just rediscovered myself.

Late Fall 2012, not much is growing  because I didn't water enough. My kid is building her own mini-garden

 My daughter is now almost a preschooler. Spring 2013 has been really successful in my garden. I'm trying to grow stuff that I had failed at up to now. I was inspired because I had volunteer spaghetti and butternut squash summer 2012. We really enjoyed the 6 small small spaghetti squash and the one butternut squash we ate before the squash vine borers destroyed the plants. My little one loved the winter squash. The only other crop that did well was the okra. The fall there was no rain and I just couldn't manage to water though I planted a lot. Not much of it came up. In the early spring, I planted a fig tree, a pineapple guava, a white turks cap bush and a fuyu persimmon. Two of which were gifts. Having these fruit trees and bushes has inspired me to water on a regular basis and we have gotten more rain this spring.

Late Winter/Early Spring 2013

Late Winter/Early Spring 2013

Salad Greens and Chiogga Beets from my Garden

A typical weekly bowl of Braising Greens.

 This is the best year yet for my backyard and garden and quite a few of the seeds I planted in the fall just waited 'till spring. I have managed to have two dishes of greens and one large salad every week which included beets for several weeks now and there is more to come from the garden. This year I got brave and am trying tomatillos, tomatoes, green peppers, basil, and cucumbers. Only the cucumbers are not doing well, so far though we did get to eat one pickling cucumber which was super tasty.  I have many random plants because my kid has to have seeds and plants anytime she goes to the plant nursery with me and as long as it is under a certain amount I can't resist buying them for her with the hopes she will be interested in the garden as well. We have volunteer summer squash, a zucchini type. I don't know how we ended up with it, but already have eaten more zucchini from it than all the years I've tried planting summer squash and I am seeing several small fruits that will mature in the next few weeks.  I also have two other volunteer melons or squash. No clue which since they are not fruiting yet. I am seeing a greater variety of insects, birds, and today a mouse. Mostly we have squirrels, including one living in our sycamore tree in the front yard which is going to eventually require us to cut it down. I suspect it is not only the squirrels digging in my garden, but mice. I know a lot of these new animals and bugs are due to the pecan crop we got in the fall which we harvested the majority of in October and some more in November and a few in December.  We still have some pecans that I am making pesto with this weekend. We also gave away several bags. Not sure I will be doing that this fall if we get another crop because I have this crazy idea that I want to be able to someday produce 75 to 80% of our food. I've read it is possible though not sure in Austin, Texas if it is...

I rechecked the same gardening books I liked from previous years and some new ones. Each time I learn something completely new like certain squash and melons can cross pollinate so watch were you plant them and if you want pure varieties only plant one variety each year.

I have finally apparently eradicated the poison oak because the bindweed, peppervine, carolina snailseed, hackberry and hedge parsley have completely taken over it's spot. Where the ligustrum used to be along the fence and then there was just emptiness has been taken over by volunteer pomegranate including a white/pale yellow variety. Looking forward to seeing if any of them are fruiting pomegranate or they are just ornamental. I suspect the pale yellow is an ornamental.

I have some new volunteer ornamental flowering plants (I think some people consider them weeds) and some of the wildflowers that I have planted for 4 yrs straight are finally coming up. Of course at this point I only know what a few of them are like the spiderwort, the standing cypress, and the wild chives. But that is one of the things I love about gardening is researching my garden mysteries. I just figured out that the plant that came up with the volunteer sunflowers last summer is amaranth and it is edible. I found one growing today and figured it out.

I'm keeping it this year because I think I may add in backyard chickens or rabbits and it will be a good source of grain one day. I also planted a good eating variety of amaranth though I have no clue since though I have had amaranth flour, I've never eaten amaranth leaves which are suppose to be like spinach. Well, I did taste a raw one today and it just tasted vaguely green grassy rather than like spinach. Next challenge is to cook some amaranth greens. I will be starting with the wild ones.

I love growing food. There is just something magical about it and it is tastier for many reason. I am really excited about growing varieties not found at stores because they don't keep well fresh. When I first started this adventure I stuck to things I knew I liked to eat and as time goes on I'm learning to like new things that I thought I didn't like beets because chiogga beets are not only pretty in my salads but so much tastier than the store variety.

I read about Ring Gardens in Dryland gardening and had to try it.

I can't resist  trying experimenting with new garden methods, in the beginning I thought I thought I would only be doing raised beds, but this year I've started an in ground bed, my own version of a hugulkultur bed, a tomato ring, and I trenched our compost in a style of double dug intensive bed and planted stuff over it. I'm also going to try to make a bean pole tent for my kid to play in. You can see the frame of it made out of bamboo stakes sourced from down the street.

In the last year, I've dismantled a lot of my old experiments which were not successful. The new ones are much more successful already. I'm also more accepting that I just like to experiment and even though I read a lot regarding certain garden theories just like in my cooking, art, and sewing I have a hard time following directions I just need to follow my bliss which will hopefully lead to lots of food to eat one day, regardless I will be happy digging in my garden.

Weeds in My Garden: Torilis Arvensis

I have this mass of tiny white flowers and was wondering if I should pull it up, so I took some to the Natural Gardener to ID. They told me it was a native Queen Anne's Lace which was one of three things I thought it could be all in the same family. Turns out it is actually Torilis Arvensis also known as Hedge Parsley also known as Sock Bane. Luckily, it is an annual and seems to be attracting bugs that would otherwise be eating my vegetables. Though, I am tempted to pull it up because I remember the sock bane part from last year.

Egg-Free, Corn-Free, Gluten-Free Simple Ice Cream

My 2.5 year-old gets sick eating certain foods, so I do a lot of experimenting in the kitchen. Finally came up with a simple ice cream recipe we both can eat. Yay.

Vanilla Coconut Ice Cream using the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker

1 cup raw milk cream
1 can coconut milk
1 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp vanilla

Stir ingredients well together.
20-25 mins in the ice cream maker and it is ready to serve. Best Ice Cream I've made so far.

Gluten and Egg Free Sesame Honey Spice Cookies

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup whey

3 tbls flax seed in 9 tbls water

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup coconut palm necter

1/8 cup honey

2 tbl molasses

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup potato flour

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1 cup almond meal

1 1/2 cups coconut flour

 2 tbl blood orange bitters or orange or lemon zest w/ juice (optional) 

1/2 cup hulled sesame seeds 

Preheat oven 350. Mix all dry ingredients together (except sesame seeds), mix all wet ingredients which includes flax seeds together. Wet ingredients should look like thin pancake batter. Add dry ingredients and mix. When batter forms a dough add sesame seeds. If batter is too wet add more almond meal, if too dry add whey.

Roll into balls and smash flat onto cookie sheet. cook 11 to 13 mins depending on if you want softer or firmer cookies. These came out really tasty. Still a little too sweet for me, but not by much.

Honey Cookies

2 sticks butter

1 cup honey (can also use 1/2 maple syrup or barley malt)
1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ea. cinnamon, cloves, allspice

1/2 cup potato flour

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1/4 cup arrowroot powder

1/4 cup oat flour

1 1/2 cups almond meal

2 cups rice flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbl blood orange bitters or orange or lemon zest w/ juice (optional)

In a saucepan, cook honey and butter together until it reaches the boiling point. Remove from heat and set aside to cool add bitters & vanilla.

Whisk or sift together flours, baking soda and spices until no streaks remain. Add sufficient flour to the honey and butter mixture to make a soft dough (about 3 3/4 cups).

If dough seems too sticky, add a tablespoon of flour at a time. If dough seems too dry or dense, add a tablespoon of milk until dough is of a good consistency.

Form the dough into thin rolls, wrap in wax or parchment paper and chill thoroughly in refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Even better if the next day or a couple of days later.

Slice into 1/8-inch thick slices and bake in a preheated 375°F oven for about 10 minutes or until done.

These came out great. My kid loves the raw cookie dough. So do other kids. My husband and all my kids friends loved these. I found them too sweet. I'm thinking about how to make them so that they are meant to be raw maybe with just almond meal & coconut flour or other nut flours...